The Labor Department announced on Tuesday that it overstated 911,000 in the past year through March 2025. This whopping revision represents 0.6% of all payroll jobs and is literally triple the 0.2% average annual revision in the past 10 years. Interestingly, Bloomberg reported that a third of leadership jobs at the Labor Department are vacant, hinting that there may be a morale problem that the new commissioner needs to correct.
The Trump Administration’s recent ICE raid on LG Energy Solutions’ new battery plant in Georgia is sending some shockwaves, since apparently, many worker visas had expired. Before the ICE raid, South Korean companies had been struggling to get work visas. In battery plants, one official said that engineers who have expertise in production line design are “irreplaceable.” It will be interesting to see how this visa spat will be resolved. I suspect that the Trump Administration will demand that more U.S. workers be hired.
When the $7,500 EV tax credits expire at the end of September, EV sales are expected to slow, so is already curtailing its EV production despite surprisingly strong EV sales. The Trump Administration’s EPA rollback of emission standards is also expected to provide GM, , and with a windfall, since they will no longer have to buy emission credits from and . GM has spent $3.5 billion on regulatory emission credits since 2022. Ford will now be able to cut almost $1.5 billion in regulatory emission credits this year.
While the Big 3 are getting a windfall from the Trump Administration, they also have higher operating costs due largely to tariffs on Canadian auto parts. GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said eliminating the fines “will save us money in 2026 and beyond for sure.” Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley told analysts that the shift in policy “has the potential to unlock a multibillion-dollar opportunity over the next two years.” The bottom line is the Big 3 makes a lot of money on trucks, so now they will no longer have to buy regulatory emission credits to comply with the EPA.
